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Women's Basketball
Seniors Bow Out With Decisive Home Win over Wildcats
By Tony GerdemanLed once again by the talented tandem of Jantel Lavender and Samantha Prahalis, the #10 Buckeyes (27-4, 15-3 Big Ten) defeated Northwestern (16-12, 7-10 Big Ten) 78-47 on Senior Night in Value City Arena.
Lavender paced the Buckeyes on the scoreboard with 26 points on 12-17 shooting and pulled down 12 rebounds. It was her 18th double-double of the season. She wasn’t alone in the double-double club, however, as Prahalis scored 14 points on 6-10 shooting and handed out 14 assists.
Despite the final score, the Buckeyes were put to the test early on as they lead Northwestern just 30-25 at the half. Ohio State’s shooting was lacking initially, as they connected on just 12 of their 30 first-half field goal attempts, including 4-12 from behind the three-point.
The second half, however, was a much different story. The Buckeyes came out and immediately found their shooting stroke and didn't lose it the rest of the game. Ohio State went 21-34 from the field in the second half, including 6-8 from three-point land.
The offensive outburst was exactly what Buckeye Head Coach Jim Foster expects from his team, but as he noted, it generally starts on the defensive end.
"I think in the second half, that’s who we are. Sometimes we forget. I think we started to guard better. That created the opportunity to get numbers and we made a couple of threes. We became very difficult to guard. There were a lot of dimensions that we brought into play today."
Those dimensions included senior guard Maria Moeller, who scored nine points on 3-4 shooting from behind the three-point line. Dubbed “Old Reliable” by Foster, Moeller couldn’t help but get emotional before he last ever game in the Schottenstein Center, and explained that those emotions probably played into the Buckeyes’ slow start.
"I was really emotional just coming in and knowing it was our last game playing at the Schott. Just a whole bunch of emotions flowing, and maybe that affected our first half. But I think we regrouped at halftime and came out with a strong second half."
That second half saw Ohio State outscore Northwestern 48-22. The Buckeyes forced ten turnovers in the second half and came away with five steals as their increased defensive intensity paid off.
Lavender explained that at halftime, the team had a bit of extra motivation to put the Wildcats away.
"We really looked at ourselves at halftime and said ‘It’s senior night, but we have to get past all of this emotion and just come out and play‘. I just think we came together and decided that we wanted to play extremely hard on defense and send the seniors out with a bang, so we just had to turn it up a couple of notches."
Those notches went all the way to eleven for the Buckeyes, as they built a 22-point lead just 9:55 into the second half before running away with the game the rest of the way out.
Northwestern center Amy Jaeschke proved a handful for Ohio State. She scored 22 points on the night, but needed 25 field goal attempts in order to get it done.
With the win on Senior Night, these four Ohio State seniors will leave Value City Arena just three wins shy of tying the school record of 109 wins in a career.
Postgame Notes
- Senior guard Shavelle Little scored two points, had three assists and one steal in her final appearance in Value City Arena.
- Senior forward Andrea Walker scored six points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked a team-high three shots in just 15 minutes of play.
- Senior guard Cherise Daniel had one assist in seven minutes of play.
- The Buckeyes lead the all-time series with Northwestern, 37-15, and have won the last 19 meetings overall.
- OSU's average margin of victory over the 19-game streak is 23.4 points. The last Northwestern victory in the series was a 48-41 win Jan. 17, 1999 in Evanston.
- In regular-season games, Ohio State is 19-2 after a loss since the 2004-05 season and 27-6 overall in eight seasons under Jim Foster.
- The Buckeyes have connected on a school record 205 three-pointers this season.
- Ohio State finished 19-1 at home this year, the most home wins in program history.
- Ohio State is 127-10 at home overall under Jim Foster and 100-6 since the start of the 2004-05 season.
- Ohio State is 23-0 this season when scoring 70 or more points and 4-4 when scoring fewer than 70.
- Ohio State is 21-2 this season when leading at the half.
- Jantel Lavender has scored in double figures in all 97 career games, the longest active streak in Division I.
- Lavender is now third on Ohio State’s all-time scoring list with 1,923 points, passing Tracey Hall (1,912). Lavender is just the fourth Buckeye to score 1,900 career points.
- Samantha Prahalis tied a career high with 14 assists, three shy of OSU’s single-game record of 17 held by Jamie Lewis in 2001.
- With 14 assists, Prahalis moved into sixth place on Ohio State’s all-time list with 454, passing Katie Smith (444, 1993-96).
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